Global Community Should Invest In Surgery To Improve Health, ‘Ease The Burden Of Human Suffering’

Apr 07, 2016

U.S. News & World Report: The Human Right to Heal
Fizan Abdullah, division head of pediatric surgery at Ann & Robert H. Lurie Children’s Hospital, professor of surgery at Northwestern University, and founding member of the G4 Alliance

“…[Achieving global surgery] will require us to break free of the toxic, parochial attitude that what happens half-way across the world is not ‘our’ problem. It will require the realization among the powerful, the influential, and ordinary people alike that no matter where we live, we are part of the same living, breathing organism. … We need to galvanize the global community to come together … for surgically treatable diseases. And this time around, we need not solve any scientific mysteries or even develop new drugs. We already have at our disposal the tools and know-how needed to ease the burden of human suffering. In doing so, the scalpel is now as critical as vaccines and pills…” (4/6).